To mark the International Day of Older Persons, the Red Cross of Serbia and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are organising a panel discussion on 1 October, starting at 13h.

You can follow the live stream of the discussion on the UNFPA Serbia Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/unfpainserbia

In 2020, the International Day of Older Persons will be marked for the 30^th consecutive year all during the height of COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the Red Cross of Serbia and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) are organising a panel discussion on topic “Pandemics: Do They Change How We Address Age and Ageing?”

It is known that older persons are more likely to suffer more severe consequences of the infection but also that older population is the most diverse and heterogeneous of them all so no generalisations will ever match the reality. The panel discussion will give the representatives of older persons the opportunity to show and tell how their lives changed during the pandemic. They will discuss the everyday obstacles and problems as well as positive experiences and recommendations to improve the quality of lives of all, not only older persons. The discussion will also focus on recognising personal responsibility in health protection and the importance of promoting healthy ageing throughout the life cycle.

The participants of the discussion:

Danica Šmic from Belgrade who will discuss volunteering during the pandemic,

Miroslava Matić from Kragujevac who will discuss digital inclusion of older persons,

dr Radmila Damjanović from Kruševac who will discuss ageism and the pandemic and

dr Milan Zobenica from Sombor discussing access to services during the pandemic.

Nataša Todorović, the Red Cross of Serbia expert will moderate the discussion and present the UNFPA report „Older persons and COVID-19“.